Welted knit stocking or other garment and art of knitting the same.



' R. W. SCOTT. WBLTEDKNIT STOCKING OR OTHER GARMENT AND ART OI KNITTING THE fiAME.

APPLICATION YILED JULY 24, 1914.

re ens anus FEE-C f E'oEEeT' w. sooTT, 0F BosT'on, MASSACHUSETTS, AssIenoE To scoTT & WILLIAMS, INCORPO ATED," OF CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION on NEW JERSEY.

WELTED KNIT sTocKrnG oE'oTiIEneAnMEnT AND ART OF KNITTING THE SAME.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 19, 1915.

Application aia'a'uiy 24,1914. Serial No. 852,895.

To all whom it may concern. l

Be it known that I, RoBERT W. Soon, a citizen'of the United States, and resident'of Boston in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in VVelt'ed Knit Stockings or other Garments and .Art of Knitting the Same, of which the following is a specification. r 7

My invention relates to knit fabric having welts'or hems and especially to plain knit article's' having outturne d welts and cuffs or tops of the general character illustrated Y in my Letters Patent'1,071',100, datedAlr gust26, 1913.

One object of my invention is to provide an improved article of this class having a welt of a comparatively close texture attaehe'd .to the remainder of the article in an improved manner.

Figure 1 is a side view of a stocking embodyin my invention; Fig. 2 is a diagram plan of arow of needles illustrating the steps of manufacture on a machine; Fig. 3 is anenlarged outer or face View of the fabric showingthe juncture of the welt and the top and the juncture of the top and the body of the article; Fig. 4 is a View similar to Fig. 3 showing a modified structure. I

My improved article may be composed of flat or tubular fabric. In one instance. I

may provide an integral welt lV, and top T for a circular knit or seamless stocking such as shown in Fig. 1, having a leg. L and a foot F, and a heel and toe of the usual form. the leg L consisting of fabric of anydesi-red number (which may be that of all of the needles ina machine hereinafter termed a full number) of needle-wales in width, the top T having therein fewer needle wales, and the welt \V comprising a suliicient num; ber of needle-wales to insure the desired texture. As illustrated, the latter number may be half the full number of needle-wales in the leg L.

In the illustrative instance shown the top T is provided at every fourth Wale a with a dropped or missed stitch line caused by failure to knit in that wale. the. yarns between the rie'edlewales b on either side of the wale a floating unknit, as shown at h.

of adjacent wales a and b of plain knit fabric which may be two, three or more needlewales in width. It will be understood that The fabric of the top thus comprises solid sections alternate needles, which may be the needles and (1. (for convenience given the same reference characters as the wales they knit) and by then feeding a second or following course to all of the needles, recurrent needles between the needles which take the yarnon the first course then retiring to hold their loops during knitting to form the fabric for the welt lV on the needles a and a. In the instance shown, the retired-needles are the. alternate needles for the wales b,.and when they are. retired, at the second course as shown, the said needles 7) withhold loops 10.

As in my said Patent 1,079,267; upon completion of suliicient fabric knit in the walesand a only for both the inner and outer parts of thewelt, as when the course 28 shown in'the drawings has been formed, I join the last course of the welt to the body of the fabric by restoring to operation the needles holding the loops to to' form a uniting course Z knit on the full number of needles which course has loops g in the wales a penetrating all of the terminal loops of the welt fabric in the course 28 and loops 2 penetrating all of the loops to withheld from the course 2.

Tn order to make the top T of fabric having therein dropped or missed stitch lines, it is necessary to provide against running back or. raveling only in those wales essential to holding the welt attached tothe fabric of the top, which are the wales containing the loops w by which the face wall of the welt isattached. and a. suflicient number of the wales of the back wallof the welt to preserve its continuity with the fab, ric of the top T. If the loops min wales'a of course 28 and all of the loops w are'prevented from dropping. for instance; the loops .2 need not be locked, since if released the only effect will be to make ladders or runs in the spaced wales (4. extending as far as the fold at the top of the welt, be' yond which. as I have determined by experiment, the loops will not run underany ordinary strain of use. That loop m at the left of Fig. 3 is shown dropped in this man ner. Such runs or ladders whether occurring inall of the wales a Ior only in seat- Lid tered wales are damaein neither to the anr J- pearance nor the utility or the stocking, be

ing confined to the concealed fabric of the inside or back wall of the welt.

Having provided standing wales a continuous through the welt and top, I may therefore freely drop off their needles, to form drop-stitch lines such a number of loops in other running wales a not occurring in the same wales as the loops so or the loops at, as will secure the desired fabric for the top T. I may drop the loops a at course 28, or following the loop in course Z, but as illustrated in 3, I prefer to first form a section of fabric S of a few courses knit at the full number of needles and containing wales continuing all of the loops of the uniting course Z. The needles for the wales a are then operated to drop their stitches.

ladders or runs extending to the top fold offthe welt in the wales a may be formed as a step in the manufacture, or the fabric may be left in the condition illustrated at the right of Fig. 3. Vfith yarns of some sorts ordinary strains will be insufiicient to unlock the terminal knit loops in wales a, the section S retaining all of its knit wales in use. When I refer to dropping the loops in the wales a, it will be understood the needle a, may be retired completely, after casting its loop, or said needle may be operated so as to take yarn and cast off at each course, without knitting. l Vhen sufficient fabric T is completed knitting in the wales a is again resumed for the leg L, the heel, foot and toe. Vfhen is is desired to secure the fabric against running back at the drooped wales a, for instance when it is desired as an element of design or appearance to provide an extent of full-number fabric S sufficient to make a prominent effect in the article, I may employ the structure shown in Fig. 4.

It will be noticed that the needles b, which are not employed in the welt, are necessarily capable of witholding their loops during knitting upon the remaining needles. Haw ing formed the course Z and the succeeding courses such as 30 to 3st, I now cause the needles?) to withhold their loops as at g in said Fig. l, while continuing to knit in the wale a and a to form for instance the courses 35 and 36, the yarns of which will be cast ofi over the heads of the loop-retaining needles in the wales b, and pass behind said wales I), but will be knit by the needles a and (1.. Having completed said courses I now operate the needles a to cast off, whereupon they drop the terminal loops as in the wales a. Knitting is now resumed on all the needles except those at a, at course 37 for instance. The natural-curl of the fabric will have thrown the terminal loop or pair mar-moo jacen t to the needles upon which they were knit, and the yarn 34 of the succeeding course will pick up and hold the said loops toward the face of the fabric, causing them to penetrate the sinker or float wale between the two needles 7) in either side of the needle a. I have explained and claimed in my application Serial No. 823,121 another species of this structure, which formsan efficient frictional lock to prevent raveling of a dropped wale. In the present case, this effect is aided by loops 9 in the Wales 6 taking the longitudinal strains, which can not be transmitted through the wale a because of the extra number of loops of course 35 v aid in reducing the size of the eyelet hole formed in the wales 0,.

In connection with Fig. 2 l have, illustrated, merely to indicate capacity for differently operating the particular needles, short jacks j for the needles Z2, longer jacks j for the needles a, and still longer jacks j for the needles a. The operations described when performed by machine require the needles b to be retired from action while holding their loopsduring knitting upon the remainder and require the needles a to be capable of being operated so as to cast off and retire, or to cast off in each course, dun ing normal knitting upon the remainder. These operations may readily be performed in an independent needle knitting machine by suitably operating the jacks of different lengths selectively at the required times.

What I claim is:

1. A knit garment having an integral welt in which there are wales of knit loops continuing into the adjacent part of the garment; some of said wales being standing wales continuous with solid knit adjacent fabric and some being wales terminating in dropped stitches.

2. In a knit fabric, an integral knit welt united at one end to the adjacent fabric and having certain wales continuous at the other end with the wales of saidadjacent fabric, the intervening wales of said welt fabric terminating in stitches dropped in the adjacent fabric.

- 3. A knit garment having a top containing sections of solid fabric separated by wales of unknit yarn, said garment compris ing an integral welt havingstanding knit wales corresponding to some of the wales of said solid fabric. and other knit wales corresponding to said wales ef unknit yarn.

4. In a knit article, an out-turned welt comprising an initial course, a subsequent course having withheld uniting loops and continuous front and back walls formed of fabric whose knit wales stand between said withheld loops, the adjacent section of said article comprising sect-ions each havin Wales in continuation of said withheld loops, and other wales in continuation of certain recurrent wales only of the welt fabric.

A stocking having a top of adjacent wales of solid plain knitting separated by wales of unknit yarn, said top being provideo with an integral welt united at one end to initial stitches of some of the wales of solid plain knitting, some oi? the wales of the welt being continuous at the other end with some of the wales of solid plain knit ting, the remaining wales of the welt terminating in dropped stitches corresponding to said wales of unknit yarn.

6. In a stocking, a top comprising sections of solid plain fabric and wales of unknit runs or floats of yarn, and a section longitudinally continuous therewith having therein one or more courses of yarn interknit in one of the Wales passing through each of said sections of solid plain fabric, one of said courses having a loop cast of? in each of said unknit wales, the yarn of said. courses passing behind other wales.

T. The art of knitting welted garments having a curl or top of fabric having solid sections separated by lines of unknit yarn, on a series of instruments, comprising supplying yarn to all of said instruments, with holding loops at recurrent instruments distributed among the others, then knitting fabric for a welt at the remaining instruments, thereafter knitting a uniting course through said withheld loops and terminal loops of said welt fabric,'and then dropping stitches at certain on]; of those instruments intervening between said recurrent instruments.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

" ROBERT W. SCOTT \Vitnesses MARY F. GRIFFIN, .lVlTNOI' G. CROZIER 

